Zoombu
Encyclopedia
Zoombu is an online door-to-door journey search engine
for Europe. Users can enter their starting and destination addresses and the service searches thousands of routes across combinations of transportation including flights, trains, ferries, and ground transfers including taxis, driving and car parking. Results can be filtered according to specific user preferences, budget, time available and even carbon footprint. The service is independent from any particular carrier and searches hundreds of transportation carriers. Zoombu does not include booking capabilities, but instead it links to transportation suppliers where it is possible to book components of any route.
The company is based in South-West London
.
in 2008. He was frustrated at the time it took to search for flight routes and compare these to alternatives such as taking the train or ferry, then research connections to determine the best overall option. Others shared his frustration and he entered the idea for a door-to-door travel search engine into a competition run by Oxford Entrepreneurs called Ideal Idol, which he won. Shortly afterwards he asked Rachel Armitage, a friend and colleague from undergraduate engineering at Oxford to co-found the business.
Zoombu’s search engine has been available to a handful of users on a private basis from mid 2009. In March 2010, Zoombu’s Beta product was opened to the public, catering for searches from the UK to within Europe. In April 2010 the product was still in Beta and broader geographical coverage was expected to be added in September 2010. In 2011, Skyscanner
acquired Zoombu for an undisclosed sum and the site is currently disabled.
The small start-up team has been recognised for their innovation within the travel industry and has won several awards including The University of Oxford Saïd Business School Venture Fund 2009 and was a finalist at Seedcamp in 2008.
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
for Europe. Users can enter their starting and destination addresses and the service searches thousands of routes across combinations of transportation including flights, trains, ferries, and ground transfers including taxis, driving and car parking. Results can be filtered according to specific user preferences, budget, time available and even carbon footprint. The service is independent from any particular carrier and searches hundreds of transportation carriers. Zoombu does not include booking capabilities, but instead it links to transportation suppliers where it is possible to book components of any route.
The company is based in South-West London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
History
The idea for Zoombu was developed by Dr Alistair Hann whilst working as a researcher at the University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in 2008. He was frustrated at the time it took to search for flight routes and compare these to alternatives such as taking the train or ferry, then research connections to determine the best overall option. Others shared his frustration and he entered the idea for a door-to-door travel search engine into a competition run by Oxford Entrepreneurs called Ideal Idol, which he won. Shortly afterwards he asked Rachel Armitage, a friend and colleague from undergraduate engineering at Oxford to co-found the business.
Zoombu’s search engine has been available to a handful of users on a private basis from mid 2009. In March 2010, Zoombu’s Beta product was opened to the public, catering for searches from the UK to within Europe. In April 2010 the product was still in Beta and broader geographical coverage was expected to be added in September 2010. In 2011, Skyscanner
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a flight search engine that allows users to browse for flights via price and location. Additional tools such as fare graphs, allow users to compare flight prices of any given route over a month period, or the price of weekend flights from any given city.The site is multilingual,...
acquired Zoombu for an undisclosed sum and the site is currently disabled.
The small start-up team has been recognised for their innovation within the travel industry and has won several awards including The University of Oxford Saïd Business School Venture Fund 2009 and was a finalist at Seedcamp in 2008.